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Hahaha I guess one can dream right! I kind of figured watts = energy = heat in one way or another. I was just curious as to wheather the newer LED’s were getting exponentially more efficient in energy to output or not really.

I suppose the next step would be to put a laser behind a diffuser lens and see what you get. Maybe a triple; red, blue, green lasers with a heavily frosted optic.

The thing is that we tend to push these emitters up against the ceiling, and of course they’re inefficient up there. We need to lower our demands to conserve that heat and bring them into the realm of efficiency, maybe use 70.2’s in 12V at lower current and use more of them, something like that. Like the SST-40 really shines over an XM-L2, but not so much at lower levels as the Cree is more efficient down there. So we need some lights like this one that are elegant, stylish, more of the gentleman’s EDC than a Search and Rescue master blaster. There needs to be diversity, not an all or nothing approach.

Y’all didn’t think I could see that, did ya? Of course I like making a light do all it can do, but when I use them I typically spend most of my time in level 4 or 5 of 7.

This is one of the things I love about Anduril, it’s two lights in one… the ramp ceiling keeps the light sane, a good all around working light. Double click to find the alter ego…

ToyKeeper, I would like to donate a small gift to show my appreciation. Where do I send it? Thanks.

I haven’t set up anything yet. I’ve been a bit busy testing the light today…

… which brings up a thing people should be aware of for these samples. They seem to have shipped with 10508 or 10509 optics, which are both significantly more floody than the 10511 optic it is intended to have. I heard back from Neal today about this, and Lumintop hasn’t received its order of 10511 optics yet so they used some others they had in stock.

Klayking wrote:

1) If we were to compare the FW3A to a similarly sized flashlight known for efficiency, such as the Zebralight SC64, would the FW3A be roughly as efficient?

2) In ToyKeeper’s Emisar D4 review, she listed all of the ramping steps. These seem to be the same on the Emisar D4S and I was able to use them to configure my D4S’ stepped levels very specifically. Will these steps also be the same on the FW3A, as it is running Anduril? I’d like to be able to set my ramp ceiling right at the highest regulated mode for efficiency, and it is nice to know where that is exactly.

1. No. Zebralights use buck/boost drivers, which are more efficient than linear drivers. The FW3A uses a linear driver.

2. The ramp is not the same as the D4. The full details are in the cfg-fw3a.h file, but here’s a summary:

I like floody. How much more floody is the 10508 than the10511? And can I purchase this 10508 optic somewhere and just drop it in myself without issue? The beam shown on Maukka’s review looked terrific to me!

I like floody. How much more floody is the 10508 than the 10511? And can I purchase this 10508 optic somewhere and just drop it in myself without issue? The beam shown on Maukka’s review looked terrific to me!

The 10511 is called a narrow spot.
The 10508 is called a medium spot.
The 10509 is called a wide spot.
All of the above are frosted.

The 10507 is the non-frosted, clear version with a narrow spot.

I don’t know the beam angles, but the hot spot diameter is what changes. The wider the spot, the less throw distance.

I’m still testing and measuring and taking pictures, so I’ll have more details later… however, here are some initial notes on the FW3A sample I received today:

The good:

Almost everything about this light is made well, and is what I was hoping for.

The grey finish looks nice.

The host in general is high quality with precise machining.

The button feels a lot more solid than earlier versions. I haven’t had any issues at all with missed button presses.

The clip is perfect, with none of the minor machining issues seen on earlier units.

The light is ergonomic and comfortable to hold.

I don’t see any weirdness in the anodizing, like the prototypes had.

Output is steady and stable even at moon level.

All the firmware features appear to work correctly.

Except a couple things noted below, everything appears to be correct, up to spec, and otherwise in order. That’s not a thing I can say often, even about production lights.

The bad:

On mine, there was an issue with the driver fitting into place in the pill. It looks like the pill’s driver shelf wasn’t cut wide enough, so it rested off-center on top of the correct space instead of in the correct space. I fixed mine manually, by filing down the edges of the driver and dremelling the pill a little farther open. This was weird, because no prototypes had this issue, and it looks like maukka’s light doesn’t have this issue either.

Mine shipped with firmware from 2018-12-02 instead of 2019-01-05. I’m hoping the real thing will have a newer version, but there isn’t much changed so either one is okay.

Misc notes:

The optic is a 10508 or 10509, not 10511. So it’s even floodier than the real thing is expected to be. Beam shots on these won’t look the same as the production units.

Lumintop hasn’t received their order of XP-L HI 3D emitters yet, so they used extras they had in stock. On maukka’s, this meant ~5700K, maybe a 2B tint. On mine, it was ~4000K, like a 5A or 5D tint.

I’m not really a fan of warm tints, but this 5A/5D isn’t bad. I like it a lot more than the SST-20 4000K 95CRI light I had for a while, so I think I’ll leave it this way. The only nicer ~4000K tint I’ve seen was a Nichia 219B.

So I’ll be checking on each other sample in detail to make sure there were no other issues. The only important issue was the driver not fitting quite right on mine, but it seems likely this was not typical. Everything else is minor and/or should be resolved simply by waiting for parts to arrive.

For me, it’s about output first and foremost. If we could pack 30,000+ lumens into a package the size of an Emisar D4 with a 18350 tube that (somehow) doesn’t get hot SUPER quick, that’s what I’d like to see.

- you forgot to add that it needs a runtime of 8 hours at turbo, too

- and have the ability to make hot chocolate from snowdrifts

- and must be able to use the full 30K lumens in a strobe rhythm that will bring down UFO’s and send grizzlies back to the mountains bawling their eyes out

I’m still testing and measuring and taking pictures, so I’ll have more details later… however, here are some initial notes on the FW3A sample I received today:

The good:

Almost everything about this light is made well, and is what I was hoping for.

The grey finish looks nice.

The host in general is high quality with precise machining.

The button feels a lot more solid than earlier versions. I haven’t had any issues at all with missed button presses.

The clip is perfect, with none of the minor machining issues seen on earlier units.

The light is ergonomic and comfortable to hold.

I don’t see any weirdness in the anodizing, like the prototypes had.

Output is steady and stable even at moon level.

All the firmware features appear to work correctly.

Except a couple things noted below, everything appears to be correct, up to spec, and otherwise in order. That’s not a thing I can say often, even about production lights.

The bad:

On mine, there was an issue with the driver fitting into place in the pill. It looks like the pill’s driver shelf wasn’t cut wide enough, so it rested off-center on top of the correct space instead of in the correct space. I fixed mine manually, by filing down the edges of the driver and dremelling the pill a little farther open. This was weird, because no prototypes had this issue, and it looks like maukka’s light doesn’t have this issue either.

Mine shipped with firmware from 2018-12-02 instead of 2019-01-05. I’m hoping the real thing will have a newer version, but there isn’t much changed so either one is okay.

Misc notes:

The optic is a 10508 or 10509, not 10511. So it’s even floodier than the real thing is expected to be. Beam shots on these won’t look the same as the production units.

Lumintop hasn’t received their order of XP-L HI 3D emitters yet, so they used extras they had in stock. On maukka’s, this meant ~5700K, maybe a 2B tint. On mine, it was ~4000K, like a 5A or 5D tint.

I’m not really a fan of warm tints, but this 5A/5D isn’t bad. I like it a lot more than the SST-20 4000K 95CRI light I had for a while, so I think I’ll leave it this way. The only nicer ~4000K tint I’ve seen was a Nichia 219B.

So I’ll be checking on each other sample in detail to make sure there were no other issues. The only important issue was the driver not fitting quite right on mine, but it seems likely this was not typical. Everything else is minor and/or should be resolved simply by waiting for parts to arrive.